This course examines the historical growth, philosophical premises, and literary techniques of important writers in American literature up through the Civil War. Students read a wide, diverse range of literature, such as Native American, Spanish American, and African American literatures, in the genres of fiction, essays, poetry, journals, autobiographies, and slave narratives. Students also study aesthetic and intellectual movements such as Neo-classicism, Romanticism, and Transcendentalism. The course focuses on historical development with emphasis on the American Renaissance of the 1850's. Students investigate print, internet resources, and electronic databases and write literacy research essays in MLA format.